Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Powers (Release Candidates)

[Jimmy]

This is a Focused Feedback Thread

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• Changes from the previous build will be listed in green.
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New Support Powerset: Electrical Affinity (Feedback Thread - Powers, Feedback Thread - Name)

You are able to control and manipulate electricity to aid your allies and weaken your enemies. Some Electrical Affinity powers build Static, which increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to.

• The set has been built around chaining powers and a stacking / combo system that's similar to those found in many of the more modern melee and ranged damage sets, with a focus on wide variety of buffs for the whole team as well as damage and endurance debuffs for your enemies.
• Electrical Affinity also introduces and makes use of a brand new mechanic which allows powers to dynamically change the number of targets they can hit - in this case, the four Circuit powers hit more targets for every stack of Static that you currently have.
• Electrical Affinity is available for Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers and Masterminds.
• Electrical Affinity has both a Hero (blue) and Villain (red) default theme available for all ATs, along with the light and dark customisation themes.

General Changes

• Removed the 0.1s delay on some Endurance drain components
• Adjusted -End values of all powers in PvP to be more reasonable (Thanks @Dan Petro for the input!)

Powers

•  T1: Shock (Ranged, Foe -DMG, -End, -Recovery, -Regen)
  • Strike a single foe with a highly-charged electrical shock, draining some endurance and moderately reducing their recovery, regeneration and damage output. Recharge: Slow
    • Updated the continuing FX of the debuff
•  T2: Rejuvenating Circuit (Ranged (Chain), Ally Heal, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of healing energy between several nearby allies, healing them for a small amount. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to additional allies. The first few targets in the chain receive a more potent effect. Rejuvenating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Moderate
•  T3 (Defenders, Controllers and Corruptors): Galvanic Sentinel (Summon Galvanic Sentinel: Ranged Debuff Special)
  • Summons a Galvanic Sentinel to your aid. The Galvanic Sentinel shocks and weakens your foes, draining some endurance and reducing their regeneration, recovery, and damage output. The Galvanic Sentinel can be buffed and healed, and may be targeted with your Circuit powers. Recharge: Slow
    • Updated the continuing FX of the debuff
•  T3 (Masterminds): Discharge (Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Dmg, -End, -Recovery, -Regen)
  • Unleash a blast of electrical energy around your target, draining them and all nearby enemies of some endurance. This will also reduce their regeneration, recovery, and damage dealt for a short period of time. Recharge: Slow
    • Updated the continuing FX of the debuff
•  T4: Energizing Circuit (Ranged (Chain), Ally +End, +Recharge, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of pure energy between several nearby allies, restoring a small amount of their endurance and significantly increasing their attack rate for a short time. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to additional allies. The first few targets in the chain receive a more potent effect. Energizing Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T5: Faraday Cage (Location (PBAoE), Team +Res(All DMG but Toxic, Status, Knockback, -Rech, -Rec, -End))
  • Create a large energy barrier at your location which provides all allies within resistance to all damage except Toxic. They are also protected from status effects, knockbacks, endurance drain, recovery debuffs and recharge debuffs. Casting this power again will move the energy barrier to your location. Standing inside your own Faraday Cage will grant you a stack of Static every 5 seconds. Recharge: Moderate
•  T6: Empowering Circuit: (Ranged (Chain), Ally +DMG, +Tohit, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of empowering energy between several nearby allies, increasing their damage output and chance to hit for a short time. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to additional allies. The first few targets in the chain receive a more potent effect. Empowering Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T7: Defibrillate (Melee (Targeted AoE), Ally Rez, Foe Sleep, -End, -Recovery)
  • Strike a target with a highly-charged jolt of electricity, reviving all nearby allies and draining all nearby foes. Any enemies affected will be drained of some endurance, have their recovery reduced and be put to sleep for a short time. Defibrillate consumes all stacks of Static, and the strength of the offensive component of this power scales with the number of stacks consumed. Allies will always be revived with full health and endurance regardless of the number of Static stacks consumed. Recharge: Long
    • Now correctly applies -recovery in PvP
    • Debuff how has a 15ft radius and 16 target cap (down from an... infinite cap...)
    • Debuff will no longer apply an AoE for every single target in range
    • Endurance drain component reduced by around 50% (still varies with stacks and is enhanceable)
    • Both the debuff and rez will now work regardless of the distance between you and the target at the end of the animation
•  T8: Insulating Circuit (Ranged (Chain), Ally +Absorb, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of protective energy between several nearby allies, granting them a small protective shield. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to additional allies. The first few targets in the chain receive a more potent effect. Insulating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T9: Amp Up (Ranged, Ally +Special, +Recharge)
  • Empower an ally with raw energy, causing all of their abilities to unleash chained bolts of electricity at nearby foes. These bolts drain a small amount of endurance and have a chance to knock up the target. Amp Up also moderately increases their attack rate and greatly boosts the secondary effects of their powers. Their power effects like heals, defense debuffs, endurance drains, disorients, holds, immobilizes and more, are all improved. Recharge: Very Long
•  Static (Circuit Boost)
  • Every stack of Static you have increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to by 3.

[JayboH]

So the defibrillate team can basically test this - looks like it's about good to go

[Bopper]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

• Now correctly applies -recovery in PvP
• Debuff how has a 15ft radius and 16 target cap (down from an... infinite cap...)
• Debuff will no longer apply an AoE for every single target in range
• Endurance drain component reduced by around 50% (still varies with stacks and is enhanceable)
• Both the debuff and rez will now work regardless of the distance between you and the target at the end of the animation

Before I test next, can I get some clarity on the effects range for the power? In the power description on beta, it shows a Power Range = 7.00 ft. Here in this description, the debuff radius shows 15 ft. 

 

I'd like to know, what is the Sleep radius (I assume also 15 ft) and what is the Ally Rez radius? Also, where is the radius of the Rez applied from - the caster of Defibrillate or the target of Defibrillate (which could be live friend, dead friend, or enemy)?

[Jimmy]

Rez should have a 20ft radius, both the Rez and sleep radii should be centred on the target.

[Bopper]

8 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Rez should have a 20ft radius, both the Rez and sleep radii should be centred on the target.

Is there a reason why this wasn't working when Replacement and I tested it yesterday? Was something bugged that required the rez to take place closer to 10 ft?

[Jimmy]

Just now, Bopper said:

Is there a reason why this wasn't working when Replacement and I tested it yesterday? Was something bugged that required the rez to take place closer to 10 ft?

Was everyone stationary at the time? (Target and caster)

[Bopper]

Just now, Jimmy said:

Was everyone stationary at the time?

I was stationary, the dead guy was stationary, and the target was moving near me, but was well within 20 feet when I cast Defibrillate, and when I hit the target, they stopped moving. So basically, at no point was the target outside of 20 feet from the dead guy, and the rez did not happen. We have screen caps in the D.T.T.T.F. thread.

 

Also, a slight aside. Would it make more sense to let the recovery debuff to share the same 20 foot radius as the ally rez and sleep effect? It might cause confusion for players who will only have the in game info to work off of (which shows 7 feet and an effect area of Single Target).

[Number Six]

If the target was moving that’s probably why. Same as the jousting issue, if the target was more than 7’ away at the time of the actual hit (keep in mind due to motion prediction and time travel mechanics in the powers system this may not sync up with what you see onscreen exactly), the secondary power would fail to go off because it was out of range. That was not fixed until today.

 

The recovery debuff and the sleep share the same radius — they’re both part of the offensive half of the power.

[Bopper]

13 minutes ago, Number Six said:

If the target was moving that’s probably why. Same as the jousting issue, if the target was more than 7’ away at the time of the actual hit (keep in mind due to motion prediction and time travel mechanics in the powers system this may not sync up with what you see onscreen exactly), the secondary power would fail to go off because it was out of range. That was not fixed until today.

 

The recovery debuff and the sleep share the same radius — they’re both part of the offensive half of the power.

Thanks. I will then try to replicate the tests we ran yesterday and try to determine if the jousting issue was the cause of our failed results.

[WindDemon21]

Please swap the tier 1 and tier 3 powers. The tier 1 power is useless outside of AVs and should not be forced upon those secondaries especially that early before it even matters.

[Bopper]

2 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

Please swap the tier 1 and tier 3 powers. The tier 1 power is useless outside of AVs and should not be forced upon those secondaries especially that early before it even matters.

You might have a better chance asking for T2 to be swapped to T1.

[WindDemon21]

6 minutes ago, Bopper said:

You might have a better chance asking for T2 to be swapped to T1.

I would be ecstatic for that too. Actually yes. Cause I forgot they made the sentinel for non pet classes. Please swap them. But this NEEDS to happen, we don't need more useless forced powers on sets that nobody bothers to slot or use and would rather skip altogether or at least wait till like 49 to get.

[Bopper]

Just now, WindDemon21 said:

I would be ecstatic for that too. Actually yes. Cause I forgot they made the sentinel for non pet classes. Please swap them. But this NEEDS to happen, we don't need more useless forced powers on sets that nobody bothers to slot or use and would rather skip altogether or at least wait till like 49 to get.

Need is a strong word, but I don't disagree that the majority of folks will take and use the heal, whereas the single target debuff is skippable (although I wouldn't, it's quite powerful for what it does). At the very least, this suggestion could be done later, possibly a revamp that sees more powersets that place their low tier heal power as the T1.

 

[WindDemon21]

Just now, Bopper said:

Need is a strong word, but I don't disagree that the majority of folks will take and use the heal, whereas the single target debuff is skippable (although I wouldn't, it's quite powerful for what it does). At the very least, this suggestion could be done later, possibly a revamp that sees more powersets that place their low tier heal power as the T1.

 

Well they need to do this for this set, or at least what has needed to be done is to allow us to choose from the first two secondary powers. I know initially it's a coding issue but they mentioned last year about trying to find a way it would work in a respec though.

[Bopper]

3 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

Well they need to do this for this set, or at least what has needed to be done is to allow us to choose from the first two secondary powers. I know initially it's a coding issue but they mentioned last year about trying to find a way it would work in a respec though.

You can do that...as a defender 😉

[Apparition]

Asking to skip a powerful debuff boggles my mind.  But then I know some people have said that Sonic Siphon is skippable when playing a Sonic Resonance character...

[Replacement]

1 hour ago, Number Six said:

If the target was moving that’s probably why. Same as the jousting issue, if the target was more than 7’ away at the time of the actual hit (keep in mind due to motion prediction and time travel mechanics in the powers system this may not sync up with what you see onscreen exactly), the secondary power would fail to go off because it was out of range. That was not fixed until today.

 

The recovery debuff and the sleep share the same radius — they’re both part of the offensive half of the power.

I'm willing to test this again but I almost guarantee this isn't the issue. We did a series of tests with the same conditions

1) caster at 19', enemy closer to dead ally. Cast.

2) caster then stepped into 17' range, minor maneuvering of enemies to ensure they remain closer to dead ally. Cast.

3) repeat at 15 feet.

 

NOTE: He used the same enemies for all these tests (and also used did extra tests in here targeting pet instead or just redoing to make sure we saw what we thought we saw).

 

This means at steps 2 and 3, the enemies didn't move much more than about 4 feet, because they were the same enemies who kept waking up from previous tests.

[Bopper]

Just now, Replacement said:

I'm willing to test this again but I almost guarantee this isn't the issue. We did a series of tests with the same conditions

1) caster at 19', enemy closer to dead ally. Cast.

2) caster then stepped into 17' range, minor maneuvering of enemies to ensure they remain closer to dead ally. Cast.

3) repeat at 15 feet.

 

NOTE: He used the same enemies for all these tests (and also used did extra tests in here targeting pet instead or just redoing to make sure we saw what we thought we saw).

 

This means at steps 2 and 3, the enemies didn't move much more than about 4 feet, because they were the same enemies who kept waking up from previous tests.

It's because of the movement itself. With the enemy running back and forth, it seems an internal calculation is done that extrapolates the position of the enemy if it kept running in the same vector (with same speed) at time of cast (or end of cast, either way). So even though the enemy was running in circles, this calculation could have estimated the final position as somewhere far outside 20 feet. So if we had tested with an immobile enemy, we probably would have seen better results.

[JayboH]

Calcs should be done at the moment of the beginning of the activation like most powers, no?  Isn't that why blasts turn corners and such?

[Number Six]

1 hour ago, JayboH said:

Calcs should be done at the moment of the beginning of the activation like most powers, no?  Isn't that why blasts turn corners and such?

Defib is a bit more complicated so that isn't the case here. The top-level power does single-target selection the at the beginning of activation, but executes two more powers on a delay: the AoE rez that affects dead friendlies and the AoE sleep/debuff that affects live enemies. Those powers themselves don't activate until the delay timer expires to sync with the animation. They had a 7' range set because they were copied from the top-level power, they should have instead had an unlimited range because the target could have moved in the meantime. Come to think of it they probably also need to be flagged to ignore LoS also just in case.

 

Think of it almost like spawning a pseudopet that's forced to cast a power on the original target, but without the pet.

[Bopper]

27 minutes ago, Number Six said:

Those powers themselves don't activate until the delay timer expires to sync with the animation

At what point should the radius of effect be determined? Will it be based on where the target is when defibrillate is cast, or will it be when the delay ends? How long is the delay? The activation time?

[r0y]

1 hour ago, Apparition said:

Asking to skip a powerful debuff boggles my mind.  But then I know some people have said that Sonic Siphon is skippable when playing a Sonic Resonance character...

I agree.  Just looking at this power, assume 1 acc, 1 endmod:  -106.8% recovery debuff (turning off recovery), -28.48 end, -75% regen, -37.5% dam.

 

Now these are defender AT numbers, but with just 1 slot (2 total) of acc and end mod, it's easily a filler (8s rech, 25s duration) and useful on even boss-level dudes.  It's a solid debuff, for a tier 1.  Sure, I'd rather have a heal at level 1, and a debuff is often better at later levels, after level 10 or so (for Posi 1 & 2 AVs, EBs, etc).

 

 

 

[Number Six]

9 minutes ago, Bopper said:

At what point should the radius of effect be determined? Will it be based on where the target is when defibrillate is cast, or will it be when the delay ends? How long is the delay? The activation time?

1.66 seconds after initial activation of the power, and it's based on the position of the target after the delay -- just like a pseudopet would be. Use the same frame of mind as targeting for the kinetics heal. If your intention is to make use of the rez, the safest option is to use it on the dead player since they (probably) won't be moving.

 

Edit: I just went and double checked and the power is actually set to center the AoE powers around the caster. That's not my understanding of the design intent, so I'm checking to see if that was intentional or if it's a mistake.

[Bopper]

1 minute ago, Number Six said:

1.66 seconds after initial activation of the power, and it's based on the position of the target after the delay -- just like a pseudopet would be. Use the same frame of mind as targeting for the kinetics heal. If your intention is to make use of the rez, the safest option is to use it on the dead player since they (probably) won't be moving.

I agree. It was mostly a result of needing to test the rez radius with only one dead ally. 

[oedipus_tex]

It looks like there may still be some problems with Defibrellate. 🙂 This is what it drain with no Static  stacks:

 

 

 

Even if these numbers are fixed, I think this power will still face the same issue as the other endurance drain powers, because its still draining all enemies across the area of effect evenly. The reduction to a 15ft radius helps somewhat with lowering the target count. But what it needs is a chance to effect some creatures very strongly (I recommend a 40% chance for 65% endurance drain at top Static) but not all of the stack. It's okay to also keep the AoE -endurance but that shouldn't be too high. Maybe in the range of -20% to -30% (35% is Controller/Dominator Power Sink).

 

[Note I tweaked the numbers above. I originally suggested 40% chance for -85% endurance, forgetting I was also recommending keep -20% or so endurance. These stack, so a creature that rolled unluckily would be drained of (65 +20) = 85 endurance, before IOs and purple patch. If you raise one you should lower the other.]

 

If that it isn't done, I think this power will fall into the same situation where most of the end drain powers currently are.

Edited March 24, 2020 by oedipus_tex